Sunday 06 • 17 • 18

And now to God's Word, we're going to be looking at Psalm 42 and I'm going to read that for us.

As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night while they say to me all the day long, where is your God? These things I remember as I pour out my soul, how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise and a multitude keeping festival. Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God. My soul is cast down within me. Therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls. All your breakers and your waves have gone over me. By day the Lord commands His steadfast love. And at night His song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. I say to God, my rock, why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? As with a deadly wound in my bones my adversaries taunt me while they say to me all the day long, where is your God? Why are you cast down on my soul? And why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. — Psalm 42

The word of the Lord.

Now some of you know, our main man Jeff Bradford is out on sabbatical this summer. So I have the wonderful pleasure of introducing my good friend that many of you know, Anderson Shore. He will be giving us the word this morning and I could stand up here and probably talk about him as long as he's going to talk about Psalm 42. So I'll keep it short.

Anderson has been at CTK for about two years. He came from this area originally, then he and his wife, Carrie, went to Murfreesboro to help plant a church and then moved back. Anderson is a wonderful photographer, an amazing golfer, and since that time that he's been here, he is under care of the presbytery and he has been in the Lamp Seminary program that our church has for about a year and a half. He has been a community group leader. James wanted me to say that he's going to start an internship with the church soon, maybe this fall. His favorite food is pizza, cheeseburgers, anything like that, so if he gets up here talking and you're like, man, I need to have this guy over for lunch or something, just offer him some pizza and I'm sure he'll come.

But anyway, Anderson, I hand it off to you.

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Oh my goodness, I sound so healthy. So, like Matt said, I'm Anderson Shore and I'm glad he gave an introduction that Jeff is on sabbatical because some of you might have thought, why is this 17-year-old preaching to us this morning? I get that a lot. There's been a few times where I've had the opportunity to take advantage of that, but then there's also been times where flight attendants have asked if I'm more than 16 years old because I can't sit in the emergency exit row.

But yeah, Matt said that I'm a part of Lamp Seminary. Lamp stands for leadership and ministry preparation and then I will be starting an internship here at Christ the King in August. If you'd like to hear more about how God has called and is calling me to the ministry, feel free to come up to me after the service. Would love to grab coffee with you and talk more about that or cheeseburgers.

But before I get started, I wanted to thank CTK for the opportunity to preach from God's Word and also making a dream of mine a reality. That dream is being able to wear one of these cool microphones and feel like I'm finally part of a boy band. You've truly made me feel larger than life.

Okay, enough with the jokes. We'll say bye bye bye to them and I'll get started.

Well, today we'll be looking at Psalm 42 and through this series of Jesus and the Psalms, we've looked at Psalm 2, Psalm 72, and Psalm 23. Through those, the people that have been able to preach those have been able to show us more about who Jesus is. But today, we'll look at Psalm 42 and how it addresses our hearts and then points us to Jesus.

But before we get started, let me pray.

Father, you've been so gracious to us that you have invited us into your family, that you are a great Father. And today, I pray for those that Father's Day might be tough, whether it be that their earthly father did not live up to their expectations or Lord, it's been tough to be a father. Father, I thank you that you are gracious to us and you are truly a good Father and you listen to us and you want us to call out to you all throughout the day.

And so Father, I ask that today will be a time where you use me, you send Spirit to convict and to comfort those that are in need. Lord, we love you so much and in your name we pray. Amen.

So, have you ever caught yourself in a lull? Or you don't even catch yourself but you know that you are there? You feel as if everything is going wrong. Have you felt the weight of darkness? Some of us might not confess to it, but there are the days, the weeks, or even months where you feel as if you put all of your chips into one basket, and then that basket breaks, leaving you hopeless, tired, depressed, and wanting to be in a place where you can finally experience peace.

In my experience, when I feel this way, I want to hold it all in. I think to myself, people can't know that I'm struggling. God can't know that I'm struggling. There's good news for us this morning that we are not alone in our dryness, our sadness, or even our anger. We are all human and this happens to all of us.

Today, we are going to look at what the scriptures say about all of these feelings and how the psalmist in Psalm 42 approached the situation when he was depressed and troubled. So go ahead and pull out your Bibles and we'll look into this Psalm one more time. Setting this up, we have the perfect opportunity to look at how to deal with our emotions and how to be honest about them.

My prayer for us today is that we will not be afraid to speak out about what we are feeling. Maybe not out loud while I'm preaching, but for us to see how the writer of this song provides a great example of how honest we can be in order to instill hope into our lives.

Psalm 42

Here we go. Psalm 42:

As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, oh God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? — Psalm 42:1-2

Right away, we see that the psalmist is saying that he is thirsty for God. Like a deer approaching a dried up brook, he is panting. He is unable to drink him in.

My tears have been my food day and night. — Psalm 42:3

We need to pause there because we don't talk like that anymore, but we see that this psalmist, this man, is depressed—so depressed that he is not able to eat and he is not able to stop crying. He is crying not only throughout the day, but at night as he cannot sleep.

Continuing on:

While they say to me all the day long, "Where is your God?" These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival. Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. My soul is cast down within me. Therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls. All your breakers and your waves have gone over me. — Psalm 42:3-7

Right here, the psalmist is explaining these times of trials and times where he is not able to withstand the weight and pressure that life brings, and how it feels like waterfalls are raging on top of him or even being pulled down into the ocean. He is also contrasting this to the flowing and peaceful stream that he mentions in verse one.

By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. I say to God my rock, "Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?" — Psalm 42:8-9

Look, right here he believes that he has lost the face of God, that he can't see God, he does not hear him, which is why he is so cast down.

As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, "Where is your God?" Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. — Psalm 42:10-11

We can see from this scripture that this man is definitely in a tough spot. "Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?" He even says to God, "Why have you forgotten me?"

What we see here is a man that is in turmoil, yet he is being honest about his situation, and he is speaking to himself. What each one of us needs to realize today is that the most influential voice in your life is your own.

Paul David Tripp said this in a blog post: "No one is more influential in your life than you are because no one talks to you more than you do. You are talking to yourself all the time, interpreting, organizing, and analyzing what's going on inside you and around you."

You may be talking to yourself about why you feel so tired. Or maybe you woke up this morning with a sense of dread and you aren't sure why. Maybe your mind has traveled back to the distant past, and for reasons you don't understand, you're recalling events from your childhood.

The point is that you are constantly in an internal conversation that greatly influences the things you decide, say, and do. Paul David Tripp shows us that this conversation, our voice, is important. And now we need to figure out how to use this voice to be able to walk in obedience and remind ourselves of the beautiful grace that God has shown to us in Jesus Christ.

If you like to take notes, then here are the three points for today:

1. Stop listening to yourself and start talking to yourself
2. Have others say here is your God
3. Look to Jesus as example and advocate

Stop Listening to Yourself and Start Talking to Yourself

We know that sadness comes. We know that there are times of dryness when we aren't reading scripture, we're not praying to God, or we're doing those things but we don't feel as if we're getting anything out of it. We also know that there is a conversation that we have with ourselves. So in the midst of our days, whether it be a time of joy or a time of sorrow, we need to stop listening to ourselves and need to start talking to ourselves.

Martin Lloyd Jones, the famous Protestant pastor, talks about this by saying, "Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they are talking to you. They bring back the problems of yesterday. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Yourself is talking to you."

Now, this man's treatment in Psalm 42 was this: instead of allowing himself to talk to him, he starts talking to himself.

Why art thou cast down on my soul? — Psalm 42:5

He asked. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him, so he stands up and says, "Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you." So here it is: we need to take the example of the psalmist and say to ourselves, "Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you"—not the other way around.

We see the psalmist as an example here in verses five and six. When he is asking his soul why it is cast down and then telling himself to hope in God. What a good thing for us to say to ourselves: hope in God.

Soul, do not put hope in how much money is in your bank account—hope in God. Soul, do not put your worth in how others perceive you and maybe how you parent—hope in God. Soul, do not put your worth in how many likes you get on Facebook or Instagram—hope in God.

Speaking of Instagram and Facebook, I think that we need to make sure that we are providing space for us to hope in God. If you'd allow me for a second to speak from my soapbox, I'm kind of passionate about this topic, but I think it is important for us to realize today that we are turning to entertainment, turning to our phones instead of turning to God.

Sherry Turkle, in her book Reclaiming Conversations, says this: "These days we may mistake time on the Internet for solitude. It isn't. In fact, solitude is challenged by our habit of turning to our screens rather than inward." She also says this: "Perhaps we are not moving towards our phones, but away from something else. Are we hiding from anxiety? Are we hiding from a good idea that will demand difficult work? Are we hiding from a question that will take time to sort through?"

I don't know about you, but I get mad at myself when I continue to turn to my phone over and over again, when I'm turning to it for relief. Aren't we tired of this? Aren't we tired of turning to our phones when really we need to turn to God? Or do we love it? Do we love turning to our phones?

Either way, we need to give ourselves time to speak to our souls, and our smartphones and Netflix are taking away that time. Just remember this: our goal is to examine our hearts and tell it what it needs. And what our soul needs is the reminder that God is with us through his holy spirit.

Jesus said before he departed this world:

I will be with you day after day to the end of the age. — Matthew 28:20

Church, let's tap into this promise. We need to give the Holy Spirit space to remind us of what is true.

I have a question: Now what if I don't feel God's presence? It's a great question. The psalmist in verse nine is in the same situation. He says:

I say to God, my rock, why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? — Psalm 42:9

The thing I love about how the psalmist writes this is that he's telling himself—he calls God his rock, but then he says to him, "Why have you forgotten me?" I think by calling God his rock, he's reminding himself, he's telling himself: God is constant. God is steady. He is dependable.

But then at the same time, he's being honest about how he feels about God. That it feels like God has left him. Friends, you might feel stuck and really feel that God is not there, but reminding ourselves of what is true and that God is truly with us can bring joy in the midst of sorrow, in the midst of pain. He has not left us. So talking to ourselves is good, but inviting God into the conversation is even better. We should acknowledge his presence. We should call out to him.

So how do we do this? How do we call out to God? We do so by talking often and honestly to him. A great example of how we should talk to God is by talking like a kid. Paul Miller brings that up in his book, A Praying Life, and it's a great book. I strongly recommend it. So like a child, we should ask questions about anything. We say what we are feeling without filter. We may even at times say something ridiculous. But don't you just love that? When a kid comes up to you for some reason and he just has to say something, he said, "I went to the pool yesterday and I did a cannonball." Like, love those moments. And that's just another reason for why you should serve in kids ministry on Sundays, to remind yourself of how to talk to God.

You see, Jesus tells us:

Ask and it will be given to you. Knock and the door will be answered.

God wants to hear from us and wants to give us good gifts. But as so many times, we act more like an adult, trying to have everything together, trying to formulate our sentences and our prayers perfectly. When really, we should go to God like a child, and we should ask God questions and tell God how we feel as a child does, and tell him everything.

Preaching the Gospel to Ourselves

Next question is, what do we tell him? What do we talk to him about? I asked some of my friends this week how they preach the gospel to themselves. The gospel—it's the truth. It's the truth that Jesus came and lived a perfect life for us, and that he died the death that we deserved on the cross taking our sins, but then he rose again victorious, defeating death. I asked them how they preach this to their souls. And here are a few of their responses:

"I get anxious a lot and worry about how I'm going to get everything done. So I ask God to help me know that he is in control. It even helps me to say it out loud: God is in control."

"There are definitely times that I get angry with my kids or with my wife and I try to remind myself of how Jesus's meekness is so beautiful. I'm also able to see the depth of my sin and sometimes my mind is telling me how deep it actually is. But I can preach truth to myself in that moment that God saw the depth of my sin and he saved me from it. This helps me extend grace to others and to worship from that truth."

"Recently I feel like there's so much for me to do, so many boxes to be checked—work, house projects, going through so many transitions at once. I'm worried about what the future holds and if I'm going to be able to provide for my family. Thankfully, there are moments when I can take a deep breath and remind myself that God has been faithful to me in the past and has provided for my biggest need by sending Jesus. So he will provide once again."

That last one was me, if it sounded like I was speaking personally.

You see, I think that preaching the gospel to ourselves, telling our souls what is true is a tough skill to learn. But it's definitely worth it. I believe that preaching the gospel to ourselves is the practical application for our spiritual disciplines.

Going Back to the Watering Hole

So let me put it this way: we are not camels, we're actually cows. Some of you are probably wondering, where is he going with this one? I don't want to be either of those animals. What is this guy talking about?

You see, camels can store up water and only go to the watering hole once every so often. But cows, they have to be constantly coming back to the watering hole, coming back to the watering hole, coming back to the watering hole. Talking to ourselves, acknowledging God's presence, telling our souls what is true about God are opportunities for us to go back to the watering hole. It is an opportunity for us to drink from the flowing stream and not pant, to not be thirsty for the living God.

We do not need to be like camels and only be reminded of God from Sunday to Sunday. No. We need to go back to the watering hole. We use scripture memorization, Bible reading, prayer life, and being around God's people as ways for us to go back to the watering hole. And just start. Start today. Make your first trip to the watering hole and continue to revisit the flowing stream that Jesus offers us.

Now, we see in verse three and ten that others come along and say to the writer, "Where is your God?"

And it makes sense why his enemies would come up to him and say this because they can see that he is depressed. This is hard. Imagine you are depressed, your soul is troubled, and someone comes up to you and says, "Where is your God? Why isn't he here?" Are you kidding me? That's like rubbing salt in a wound. We do not need people to come up to us and say, "Where is your God?" But rather we need people around us to say, "Here is your God."

The Church and Corporate Worship

This is where the church and communion with other believers comes in. It's very important to be in accountable relationships as well as attending corporate worship. So that when those times of dryness come—and they will come—we can be honest with the people around us and they can remind us of what God has done for us. How great it would be that in a time of darkness, we are not greeted by someone that questions the existence of God, but rather turns our forgetful hearts back to the truths of God.

We as Christians live in a careless forgetfulness of who God is and what his promises are. As a church, as a community, we get to remind one another of God's promises and he wants us to do that. Charles Spurgeon says this:

God's promises were never meant to be thrown aside as waste paper. He intended that they should be used. Nothing pleases our Lord better than to see his promises put in circulation. He loves to see his children bring them up to him and say, "Lord, do as thou hast said." We glorify God when we plead his promises.

In order for us to be reminded of these promises, we need to give others permission to speak into our lives. If you don't have people in your life that can do this, then what better place to be than a place where we as a church have made covenant promises to one another to help one another grow in the life of a Christian. So if you're new this morning, observe what's going on, but also don't be afraid to ask for help. Ask someone to grab coffee with you. Ask someone to help you know who God is or be reminded of who God is. There are many benefits of being a part of the local church and this is just one of them.

So have close relationships with people that say, "Here is your God." But part of this is also seeing that corporate worship—what we're doing right here—is important. Look, the Psalmist is actually remembering the times when he was worshiping at the house of God in verse four and in verses six through eight. He remembers those times and he recalls the truths that by day the Lord commands his steadfast love and at night his song is with him. And he was doing these with glad shouts and songs of praise.

So we have to grasp what is going on here. What's going on in corporate worship when we all come together on Sundays? We would not be able to remember these worship services if the pastor just said a few anecdotes or we sang songs that we liked or sounded good. No. We are able to remember corporate worship because God is here. We are going to be able to recall this time because people are passing from death to life. What beautiful reminders we have—Christ the King—that we have right here in Raleigh on every Sunday that we worship together.

Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart. — Ephesians 5:19

We sing to our souls, yes, absolutely, but we are singing to other souls as well, reminding one another of the beautiful truths of Jesus. We need people who are going to worship, who are going to sing, "Here is your God. He is working." People are coming to church all across this world that are hurting, depressed, stuck in a dry time. And I can tell you this from personal experience: I'm able to be reminded of the goodness of God by watching some of you worship on Sundays. Those that I've met with for coffee and hearing about what's going on in life that's tough—they are worshiping God because they know that he is faithful. And those that I don't even know that much, seeing you worship and seeing you express the beauty of God is so good for my soul.

So pour out your souls with glad shouts and songs of praise to God so that those that are sitting next to you can remember his promises.

A Story of Faithful Worship

One example of this from my life is my friendship with a buddy, Trevor. Trevor and his wife gave birth to a little boy named Kai, and I'm sad to say that Kai only lived for one day. But seeing how Trevor responded and how he preached truth to himself and reminded himself of God's promises was a beautiful sight. Trevor encouraged me and showed me what a life of peace and trust in God looked like. And seeing the way he worshiped God in the midst of pain is an influential reason for why I'm following Christ today and why one day I'd like to plant a church.

Being reminded "here is your God" is great food for our souls and I think will help us preach to ourselves more and more.

Hear this church, how beautiful it is when the goal of a community of believers is to point others towards God's presence while some are believing that he is absent. So, stop listening to yourself and start talking to yourself. We find people that say, here is your god and we look to Jesus as example and advocate. We're able to see how the church and God's people can sing to one another and we can see how Jesus sings this Psalm for us.

Jesus does an amazing job of telling his soul what is true and talking to God about what he is feeling. In the wilderness, when he is being tempted by the devil, the devil is a great place for us to look. The wilderness represents a place of vulnerability, weakness, and danger and when I'm in a state of weakness and vulnerability, I am in danger of choosing something other than God to put my hope in. But we can look to Jesus as he is using scripture memorization to combat the lies of Satan. And he tells his soul and Satan what is true.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is in a place of turmoil where he says to the father:

My father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.

He even says to his disciples before he goes to pray:

My soul is very sorrowful even to death, remain here and watch with me.

Jesus reaches out to others just as we should. But Jesus also is telling God about the anguish of having to take the cross. Yet, he is still trusting in the faithfulness of God and holding on to God's will.

My father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.

And on the cross, Jesus calls out to God saying:

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Jesus shows us how to be honest about our situations, how to talk to our souls, and how to have a conversation with God. But he's not just an example for us. When the psalmist says to God, "Why have you forgotten me?" he is just forgetting God's presence. He's not able to remember that God is present with him. But when Jesus said on the cross:

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

He was longing for God's presence in the midst of God turning his face away from him. You see, God was not with Jesus in that moment because Jesus was taking our sins upon himself. God was giving his son up so that you and I could have a relationship with the father.

Because Jesus went through the dryness and abandonment of his father, it means that God will never abandon you. So in those times of dryness, when we think that God is not there, we can preach this truth to ourselves, that God is with us because Jesus took our place and pleads to the father on our behalf. Jesus is our biggest advocate.

The Offer of Peace

If this is not resonating with you, or you do not call Jesus as your savior and lord, how are you getting by? How are you getting out of all of your funks? How do you deal with sadness and the emotion of your day? Are you trying to pull yourself out of them? Are you turning to something that allows you to escape, but then you end up returning back to the same emotions?

The beauty and the peace of God is truly fulfilling. It is exciting, and it is available for you today. I want you to find peace. The leadership here at Christ the King wants you to find peace. And if you would like to start that conversation today, please come and talk to me, come talk to some of the elders after the service. We would love to help you start that conversation.

The Riptide

I want to tell a story real quick. Have you ever been caught in a riptide or rip current? The crazy thing about riptides is that you think you're good, you're having a good day at the beach, you're in the ocean, having a good time, but then the current comes and it picks up and you start to struggle. And before long, you are carried out far offshore, far from safety into the lonesome and deep ocean.

I remember when I was about eight years old, I was stuck in a riptide and I was fighting the current. I was trying to stay afloat while the water was pushing over me, pushing me down, pulling me down just like the waters that were described in verse seven. I asked my dad about this this week. He said one thing that stuck with me. He said, "I knew you were in trouble." Thankfully, my dad was actually able to pull me out from the current safely to shore.

God, our father, knew we were in danger. He knew we needed to be saved from the riptide of life, from the weight and struggle of living a life that is full of sorrow, full of sadness, full of turmoil, and from not being able to live a life that is acceptable to God. He knew we were in danger.

But God didn't just save us by running out into the ocean and pulling us ashore. No. You see, he saved us by sending Jesus into the ocean that is human life.

And he allowed Jesus to be ripped under the current, being torn for our sins, by being pulled out to the lonesome ocean, by being put on the lonesome cross. So remember, when there are times that it feels as if you've been forsaken by God, remember how Jesus was forsaken for you so that you can talk to God.

We have a great hope. Our hope can truly lie in God. We can fully expect him to show up. We have this proof because of the work of Jesus and that he got out of the grave on the third day and defeated the riptide. He defeated death.

Hope in God for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. — Psalm 42

In the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. Amen.

Let me pray. Father, you give us a great hope. You love us so much. Lord, I know that for some of us today this is tough, to know that we're stuck in that time, that we're stuck in a time of sadness, that we're stuck in a time that hurts. But you are with us, and you have sent your spirit to comfort us and to—